Page 79 of Bad Blood Panther

Chapter 32

The trip back through the spirit world was mostly a blur. Without Flynn guiding them, they would have been hopelessly lost. The landscape telescoped and changed without warning, grassy plains to forest to blizzard to a strange empty black glass city, and too many others to count. Xander stopped watching. He just walked beside Tank, who was in bear form, carrying Jenny and Brandon.

Every now and then he reached out to touch Jenny, reassuring himself that she was really there. His amazing, beautiful mate, who’d given him strength and courage when he needed it most.

How the hell had he ever gotten so lucky?

At one point, when they were walking across the endless grassy plain again, Flynn came up to walk beside him. “What the fuck was that last stunt?” he asked. “Submitting to the fucking CFO? You could have been alpha.”

Xander snorted. “Hell no. I just got my trailer the way I like it. And anyway, why would I want to be the alpha of a bunch of fucked-up, half-crazy brawlers?”

Flynn laughed. “Now you know how I feel.”

“Yeah, well,” Xander said, “I like to think I’m smarter than you.” He shoulder-bumped Flynn. Massive pain shot through him. “Ow,” he said. “I think Alton tore my rotator cuff again.”

He pulled Flynn a little ways away from the others. “So,” he asked quietly. “Who did you have to kill, bribe, or threaten to get those bracelets?”

Flynn cut his eyes toward Xander, and then returned his gaze to the front. “No one,” he said. “Ashley Silver gave them to me.”

“Because?”

“Because I’m descended from the fabled Lion Guard of the Draken,” Flynn said.

Xander waited for the punch line. Then he realized there wasn’t one.

“You work for the dragons?” he said.

“No,” Flynn said flatly. “And I don’t intend to. But any descendant of the Lion Guard can use the bracelets. That’s who they were made for.”

Xander thought about that for a few minutes. “And the catch would be?” he asked. Because there had to be one. Anything that powerful had a catch to it.

“My problem,” Flynn said, in a voice that shut down any more questions.

Okay then.

Instead, Xander said, “I wanted to say thanks. For saving my ass, and Jenny’s, with that awesome eleventh hour arrival. For having my back. And for making me step up.”

Flynn snorted. “Since when can I make you do anything?”

“Shut up,” Xander said. “You’re ruining my beautiful moment. You’re a fucking good alpha. There. I’m done.”

Flynn raised his eyebrows. “You’re not gonna give me a cupcake or something?”

He looked pleased, though. Probably people should tell him more often he was doing a good job.

“Maybe some bib bear poop on your welcome mat,” Xander said. “Or a glittery dead possum, if you’re lucky.”

“Finally,” Flynn said. “I thought I was the only one in the crew who wasn’t going to get one.”

Xander nodded at the dragon bracelets. “There’s a cost to using those, isn’t there,” he said. “I mean, aside from you possibly going crazier than you already are.”

Flynn kept his eyes front. “I made my choice,” was all he said.

“I hope you don’t regret it.”

“I don’t.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes. Then Xander said, “Okay. Can I go back to being an asshole now?”